You’ll pay for sloppy jobs, ministry tells bid winners

Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia at the launch of performance-based contract guidelines at the Crowne Plaza Nairobi hotel on May 25, 2016. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Firms that bag road tenders will foot the cost of repairs resulting from poor work.

Private contractors are set to absorb most of the road construction and repair risks as the government moves to cut the burden on taxpayers.

Companies that win road tenders are henceforth expected to pay up for losses linked to design flaws, poor construction, sloppy project management and substandard workmanship, new guidelines on performance-based road maintenance contracts (PBC) indicate.

The rules launched yesterday by the Transport ministry leave taxpayers to cover only the risks” beyond the contractor” such as those associated with traffic volumes, politics, environment and natural occurrences.

At the moment, contractors are free to claim from Treasury all the extra costs incurred, including idle time of equipment that remains on the site beyond official timelines for project execution.

AGREED LEVEL

The new guidelines state that contractors will only be paid upon meeting the agreed service level. For instance, they must ensure that the sections of completed roads have side drains before they ask for part payment. The roads also need to have culverts, access drifts, erosion protection structures and manholes.

“The launch of these guidelines is timely to ensure the government gets value for its money as it begins to repair roads and bridges damaged across the country by ongoing heavy roads,” said Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.

“The guidelines are also necessary because by next week, we are finalising the first batch of annuity roads, which must be constructed to high standards,” Mr Macharia said of the rules that have also been shared by governors.

The Treasury allocates Sh25 billion annually for road repairs, an amount that has to be used prudently to have an impact on the 17 million kilometres of national network.

Under the PBC guidelines, project managers are expected to mount ad hoc inspections to ensure that work runs as per standards agreed in the contract. They are expected to issue corrective orders to ensure any deviation from standards are handled at preliminary stages.

Each project must establish a self-control unit to gather information that a contractor needs to execute their work efficiently.